The War Engine
The War Engine is the first-stage fetter of Rook Naberrie, succeeded by The Vizier. The War Engine is what was left after Rook was broken down by the Empire: a blank slate, ready to imprint upon the first person to show her even a shred of apparent decency. Personality The War Engine is directionless on her own, viewing herself as a weapon in need of a wielder. In the right hands, she could be a force for evil, good, or anything in between—but whatever she does, she does blindly. She looks and acts much as Rook did at eighteen, although her cyberware is considerably more extensive, and she is considerably more—enthusiastic—about carrying out her orders. She's quite happy to be of use to someone. Isn't she? Abilities The War Engine is far more Force- than magic-focused, and far more of a close-quarters combatant than her vessel. Her left hand has been replaced with a lightsaber emitter, and her right arm and legs are entirely cybered-out, boosting her physical strength considerably. Notably, however, she is entirely blind—she uses the Force and her other four senses (particularly smell) to compensate. She can home in on living, moving things with no problem, but she's not good with inanimate obstacles and environmental hazards. Environment The War Engine can be found—in? aboard?—the Droning Catacomb. Maybe it's the corridors of a spaceship, or a winding subterranean facility of some kind. Impossible to say, because there are no windows—it's pitch-black in there, a pitch-black no outside light source seems to penetrate. The walls are steel and very cold, and one can always make out a noise which might either be the whirring of machinery or—well, hopefully it's the whirring of machinery. The floors are suspiciously moist in places, and elsewhere covered in a thin layer of (what one hopes is) rust. And there are—bundles of things strewn about the hallways, ripe for the tripping-over. Bundles. Yes. ...There are lights, primarily in the form of tiny blinking LEDs, that you can turn on if you'd like. They don't cast much light, but they're the only light source that works. She doesn't like to spend very much time there, always out on one mission or another. But that's what she has to return to. Perhaps someday she'll get around to cleaning it up. Perhaps. Relationships with other characters, other fetters, etc. Trivia * Calluna vulgaris ''is the Latin name for heather, which symbolizes admiration and luck. White heather additionally stands for protection, and lavender heather for solitude. (ref.) In addition, heather is associated with Windemere Province, the area Rook was from in her native continuity—and with Celtic culture, upon which Windemere was very loosely based. (ref.) * The ''dabbaba, or war engine, is a theoretical or "fairy" chess piece, which moves two spaces at a time in any orthogonal direction. As such, while it moves farther than a pawn, it can only access about a quarter of all spaces on the chessboard. Gallery galore War Machine War Machine